Summer Courses
2015
Descriptions
GRADES 1 – 2
Dino Detectives
Have you ever wondered how paleontologists re-create the world from millions of years ago when dinosaurs roamed the planet? Observe a real Triceratops skeleton and a life-size model of Tyrannosaurus rex in our Dinosaurs exhibit. Inves-tigate evidence left behind with real tracks and fossils, and then make your own. Study the behavior of live animals, including reptiles and birds, and see what can be learned about dinosaurs from these animals’ behavior.
Launch It!
Explore force, motion, acceleration, and gravity as you experiment with rockets, catapults, paper airplanes, and more. Design a satellite to float in a vertical wind tube during one of our Design Challenges. Investigate how physics and math can help engineer machines that will blast higher, propel farther, and fly longer! This course includes an off-site field trip across the street to launch rockets.
MoS Construction Zone
Put on your hard hat and find out what it’s like to be an architect or a civil engineer. Learn which shapes make the strongest structures, and experiment with balance, tension, and compression. Test out different building materials like foam, wood, and clay as you build bridges, towers, and disaster-proof homes.
Mini-Mini Med School
Get ready to put on your lab coat, don a stethoscope, and become a doctor! Start by learning medical lingo (stat), building a skeleton, and looking at x-rays for broken bones. Move on to studying a sheep’s heart and lungs. Next up, learn why you cough and sneeze when you have a cold, and then explore the brain and nervous system. End the week by going on rounds in a mini ER where your family members become the patients. Learn to use basic first-aid materials to help the
Magical Science
Learn the physics and chemistry behind magic tricks and optical illusions. Experiment with fun, unusual types of matter such as bubbles and slime. Make things glow in the dark and change colors. Show off your new magic skills during Friday’s family magic show!
Animal Adventures
From tails to wings to scales, learn what makes animals different yet alike at the same time. Investigate what animals eat and where they live through creative play, crafts, and stories. Explore Museum exhibits such as A Bird’s World, Natural Mysteries and the Butterfly Garden.
Students will not be handling or touching living animals, but they will have the opportunity to observe and learn about some of the exciting live animals at the Museum.
GRADES 3 – 5
Blast Off with Rockets!
Build your own water rocket and see how your model relates to single- and multi-stage rockets, as well as the latest rocket designs from NASA. Discover the concepts of lift, pitch, and yaw, and attempt to make flight path predictions for the rockets. End the week with a bang by shooting off the rocket you built yourself! This course includes an off-site field trip across the street to launch rockets.
Jr. Museum Guide
Ever wonder what it is like to work at the Museum? Go behind the scenes to learn how exhibits are created and how we care for our animals. Learn how to engage guests in science conversations, and put a personal touch on a favorite Museum of Science demonstration. At the end of the week, don a red apron and bring your activity to the Exhibit Halls to show off for Museum guests and your family!
Space Explorers
Visit outer space without leaving the planet! Blast off to discover a world beyond Earth. Learn about stars, planets, and moons with a Star Lab projection. Create take-home astronomical tools to use in your own backyard. By the end of the week, you will be a real sky navigator and observe the sky through the Museum’s own telescope!
Animal Engineers
How does a prairie dog keep its burrow cool? How does a beaver build its dam? What does an ant nest look like on the inside? Explore the many lessons we have learned about building, designing, and creating from nature’s furry friends. Meet some of the Museum’s live animals and design enrich-ment activities for different species!
Paleontology: Ice Age!
Explore the exciting field of paleontology as you discover that dinosaurs aren’t the only things these scientists dig up. Learn about the animals that lived during the Earth’s Ice Ages, including saber-tooth tigers and woolly mammoths! Uncover what fossils can tell us about extinct species, and make a tar pit to sink specimens. Meet the Museum’s live animals and learn about their characteristics to help you understand what extinct species were like. Then put your skills to the test to solve a mystery millions of years in the making!
Grossology
Get ready to get dirty and experience the gross side of science! Touch dinosaur poop, make snot, and perform a dissection. Have fun with these disgusting discoveries and take a few icky experiments home with you.
Science on Screen
Be a part of the Museum of Science film crew and learn how some of your favorite movies are made! Explore the science behind special effects and optical illusions. Film your own stop-motion movie and step in front of a green screen. At the end of the week share your work with your family and friends at the Museum of Science Film Festival!
Spy Camp
Join the Museum of Science Special Agent team. Uncover secret information as you create and solve mysterious codes with your friends. Build spy gadgets and design your own disguise. Train your mind to remember details and use your
Bugs and Butterflies
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a…BUG?! Come discover this fascinating world of creatures that can lift 50 times their body weight, jump 20 times their height, and we haven’t even mentioned metamorphosis! Bugs and butterflies have a lot in common with our favorite superheroes. Learn about their amazing adaptations and why they are so important! Throughout the week get up close and personal with some of the Museum’s live specimens and hunt for your own cool critters outside.
GRADES 6 – 8
Science Chef
Who needs a lab when you have a kitchen? Putting together a recipe often means preparing a chemical reaction. Experi-ment with ingredients to make baked goods rise, turn liquids into solid food, and try out some of the latest culinary trends and techniques. Complete the week with a cooking challenge to see who is the next top Science Chef! This course is not recommended for students with food allergies.
Power: It’s Electrifying!
Where better to learn about power than at the museum that makes indoor lightning with the world’s largest air-insulated Van de Graaff generator? Discover what propels our modern world through hands-on projects, exciting demonstrations, and a unique behind-the-scenes field trip! This course includes an off-site field trip.
Mini Med School
Become a medical student for a week! Learn about physi-ology, anatomy, and diagnostics to discover what it takes to make it in medical school. Wrap up the week by performing a dissection to experience the hands-on science of being a doctor. This course includes an off-site field trip.
Space Beyond Our Sphere
Discover the mysteries of space and time through space exploration in our Planetarium. Build a working Galilean telescope, visit the Museum’s Observatory, and participate in a NASA research project to further your understanding of astronomy.
Crime Lab Boston
Many have seen the television show CSI, but how much of it is reality? Learn about forensic science and the tools that scientists use to collect and analyze trace evidence. Explore how we use forensic evidence to test our hypotheses on everything from fossil records to today’s crimes.
Storm Chasers
Kick off an amazing adventure with a trip to track extreme weather! Discover how the world’s largest air-insulated Van de Graaff generator creates an electrifying indoor storm. Meet a meteorologist and participate in a citizen science project to monitor changes in local weather conditions. This course includes an off-site field trip.
Live Animal Care Center Jr. Internship
Work in the Live Animal Care Center to learn about our scaly, furry, and feathered friends—where they come from, how they live, and how to care for them. Assist the staff by helping to clean, feed, and handle a variety of animals. On your last day, give your family a tour of the Live Animal Care Center, demonstrating your new knowledge and skills.
Please note: many animal diets include tree nuts. This course is not recommended for students with nut and other food allergies; also fur, animal dander, and any other allergies.
FULL-DAY COURSES
iPhone Video Game Creator
(grades 3 – 4 and 5 – 7)
Enjoy playing games like Angry Birds on the iPhone? Learn to explore game design process to create video games for the iPhone/Android and share with friends and family. No iPhone device or programming experience required!
Students in this class spend the better part of each day working at a computer station in one of our computer labs. Staff will work with each child to develop unique projects that meet their personal interests.
Build/Program Smart RC Cars
(grades 3 – 4 and 5 – 7)
Inspired by the self-driving Google Car, make a driverless Super-RC car that is controlled using a powerful thumb-sized Arduino computer chip. This car can work as an RC car, a computer controlled car. Learn about computer chips and electronics, and have fun racing your driver-less cars with friends. Take home your Smart Car and continue Arduino Programming. No programming experience required!
Lego Engineering
(grades 3 – 4)
Enjoy watching cool robots in the movie Big Hero 6? Build LEGO Mindstorms robots and program them to solve mis-sions. Show off your creations to friends and family during a robot parade, with music, on Friday!
Design Lego Robots to Program for
Moon Missions!
(grades 3 – 4)
Design, create, and program robots to simulate missions to the Moon. Build a rover and activate it to pick up and place objects, rotate, and move on lunar terrains. Solve fun missions and create videos of your robot missions to show off your creativity to friends and family! Take home your robot digital movie and a LEGO toy!
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Our full-day courses are designed to introduce students to various technology topics that teach and build computer-programming skills.
Make, Design, Engineer!
(grades 5 – 7)
Learn to engineer hovercrafts and gadgets to make them work! If you enjoy tinkering with electronic and mechanical objects, and want to create your own, this is your opportunity. Learn the basics of digital electronics, force, torque, acceler-ation, sensors, and microcontrollers. Join this growing group and become a Junior Maker. Share your creativity with friends and family!
3D Printing & Toy Design
(grades 3 – 4)
Explore 3D printing! Discover 3D printers, process to model your favorite game or cartoon characters through CAD (Computer-Aided-Design). Print your 3D model. Use your 3D creation to create a board game and show off your game and character to friends and family!
3D Printing and XBOX Game Design
(grades 5 – 7)
The ultimate 3D experience! Learn how to make 3D models and video games while learning toy and game design. Print your 3D model using a high-tech 3D printer to take your favorite character home. Create your own 3D game for the XBOX and share it with your friends. No programming expe-rience necessary. Show off your 3D creativity to friends and family!
Students in this class spend the better part of each day working at a computer station in one of our computer labs. Staff will work with each child to develop unique projects that meet their
personal interests.
Explore XBOX Video Game Design
(grades 3 – 4 and 5 – 7)
Explore the process of creating games on the PC and XBOX using a simple visual programming language. Be creative and learn problem solving skills, storytelling, and building a game. Create your own avatars and show off your games to friends and family. No programming experience required.
Students in this class spend the better part of each day working at a computer station in one of our computer labs. Staff will work with each child to develop unique projects that meet their personal interests.
iPhone App Creator
(grades 5 – 7)
Design an app that can run in the SmartPhone. Explore programming concepts to design your app. Debug and make it functional. Show off your innovation and creativity to friends and family and earn bragging rights! No iPhone or program-ming experience required.
Students in this class spend the better part of each day working at a computer station in one of our computer labs. Staff will work with each child to develop unique projects that meet their personal interests.
3D Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Game Design
(grades 3 – 4 and 5 – 7)
Explore concepts of 3D Game Design with Oculus Rift. Create your 3D avatar, terrains, and cool backgrounds in a video game. Show off your 3D game to friends and family. No programming experience or 3D Oculus Rift gadget required! Students in this class spend the better part of each day working at a computer station in one of our computer labs. Staff will work with each child to develop unique projects that meet their personal interests.
Summer Courses
2015
Schedule
WEEK (9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.)MORNING (1:00 – 4:00 p.m.)AFTERNOON
July 6 – 10 Dino Detectives Magical Science
July 13 – 17 Mini-Mini Med School Launch it! July 20 – 24 Animal Adventures MoS Construction Zone
July 27 – 31 Launch it! Dino Detectives
Mini-Mini Med School Magical Science Aug 3 – 7 MoS Construction Zone Mini-Mini Med School
Animal Adventures Launch it!
Aug 10 – 14 Magical Science Animal Adventures
Dino Detectives MoS Construction Zone
WEEK (9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.)MORNING (1:00 – 4:00 p.m.)AFTERNOON
July 6 – 10 Bugs and Butterflies Jr. Museum Guide July 13 – 17 Animal Engineers Science on Screen
July 20 – 24 Grossology Blast Off with Rockets
July 27 – 31 Paleontology: Ice Age! Space Explorers Aug 3 – 7 Science on Screen Blast Off with Rockets
Aug 10 – 14 Spy Camp Space Explorers
WEEK (9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.)MORNING (1:00 – 4:00 p.m.)AFTERNOON
July 6 – 10 Crime Lab Boston Power: It’s Electrifying! July 13 – 17 Mini Med School Space Beyond Our Sphere
July 20 – 24 Science Chef Storm Chasers
July 27 – 31 Live Animal Care Center Jr. Internship
WEEK (9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.)FULL DAY
July 6 – 10 LEGO Robotics Engineer July 13 – 17 Build/Program Smart RC Cars July 20 – 24 iPhone Video Game Creator July 27 – 31 Explore XBOX Video Game Design Aug 3 – 7 3D Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Game Design
Aug 10 – 14
3D Printing & Toy Design Design LEGO Robots to Program for
Moon Missions
WEEK (9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.)FULL DAY
July 6 – 10 iPhone Video Game Creator Build/Program Smart RC Cars July 13 – 17 iPhone App Creator
Explore XBOX Video Game Design July 20 – 24 3D Printing & XBOX Game Design
Make, Design, Engineer! July 27 – 31
iPhone App Creator 3D Oculus Rift Virtual Reality
Game Design
Aug 3 – 7 Explore XBOX Video Game Design Build/Program Smart RC Cars Aug 10 – 14 3D Oculus Rift Virtual Reality
Game Design GRADES 1 – 2 GRADES 3 – 5 GRADES 3 – 4 GRADES 5 – 7 GRADES 6 – 8
MORNING AND AFTERNOON COURSES
FULL-DAY COURSES
To view availability and register online: mos.org/courses
By phone: 617-723-2500; 617-589-0417 (TTY) 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. daily
